Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Here's a weird one. A double feature of two obscure Euro-pop groups playing covers. The first one is "Daydream" by The Gunter Kallmann Choir. Sampled by many Trip-Hop artists, it seems like the whole genre was modeled after this single track. Dark orchestral swells, a sparse break beat and a descending bass line, with the "Choir" singing above it all, the song has a "spy" vibe to say the least. Cool song! Although many people credit The Gunter Kallmann Choir as authoring this tune, it was in fact written by a Belgian group called Wallace Collection in 1969. Gals & Pals is a bit more obscure. From what little info I could find about them online, I figured out that they are from Sweden, but that's about it. They perform a dark murky version of "Blue On Blue" (another Trip-Hoppy song!) by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. This split was put out in 2007 by some label called Dynamite Soul, but I question their original sources, since side A fades in on the beginning, and Side B cuts off just before the song comes to a complete stop. Weird... Anyway, here it is.

Here is one of my all time favorite library grooves by the one and only Norwegian film & Television composer, Sven Libaek! Misty Canyon, what a cool track! Deep, moody, groovy, jazzy, dark & spacey... Perfect! You rarely find a track where the bass line & drum beat groove together as naturally as this (plus, what a cool vibraphone solo right?). This track definitely gets dropped every time I spin records. On the other side we've got "Soul Thing". Same overall sound as side one, but this ones a bit more up-tempo with a lighter mood to it. Both tracks originally appeared on Sven Libaek's 1970 Library record "My Thing", which always reminds me sonically of Lee Hazlewood's epic "Cowboy in Sweden" album from the same year, oddly enough. This single was put out by Votary Records from Australia a few months ago. Supposedly they are also working on reissuing the entire album eventually, but even this single kept being pushed back for what seemed like forever, so we'll see when it shows up. You can find this record at www.dustygroove.com, but supplies are limited, so hurry up. After hearing these tracks, can you believe that Sven composed music for Hanna-Barbera cartoons too? Enjoy...

I did a little bit of vinyl ripping today, so I thought I should share some of it. First up is a 7" that Sundazed put out a few years back of two unreleased Sean Bonniwell tracks. Well, technically the sleeve reads Sean Bonniwell//The Music Machine, so maybe there was some confusion about if the tracks were solo work or B sides from The Music Machine. I'm not sure. Anyway, they are both pretty interesting artifacts of forgotten American psychedelic garage rock. The A side "Point of no Return" is pretty far out psych trip, featuring a lot of abrupt blasts of fuzz guitar, organ, feedback and of course Sean's deep dramatic vocal delivery. The riffs in this one have almost a medieval feel to them, not so different from Strawberry Alarm Clocks "Incense and Peppermints". Side B "King Mixer" is a little poppier, and a little groovier. Pretty catchy actually. Anyway, this guy's got a pretty good finger on psychedelia, so check it out... 320 rips, front and back cover scans included!